Clarks

Clarks was started almost two hundred years ago in Street, England where it still has its headquarters today. Originally a producer of sheepskin rugs, founder Cyrus Clark brought his brother James into the business in 1828 as an apprentice who would change the business forever...

Witnessing the wasted offcuts thrown away from rug production, James began utilizing the smaller sections of leather to produce slippers. Starting with a team of outworkers assembling the footwear at their homes in the evenings and finding initial sales promising, Clarks would rapidly evolve into a successful business championing footwear innovation. In 1873, James’ son William was the first to mechanize shoemaking in England and the company has been one of the strongest advocates for fit and performance in the evolution of footwear design ever since.

The groundbreaking combination of invention and craftsmanship continues to be the core pursuit of Clarks. The accumulated wisdom of generations of the Clark family, studying the biomechanics of rest and play, from cradle to old age, and then carving each last from a single block of hornbeam to produce a pair of shoes of superior fit, performance, and brilliant silhouettes. 

From classic children’s school shoes to the Desert Boots adopted by 60’s Jamaican Rude Boys and British Mods, to Wallabees popularity with the 90’s New York Hip Hop culture and beyond (most notably, Wu-Tang Clan and “The Wallabee Champ” himself, Ghostface Killah), Clarks is timelessly contemporary.

Read more about Clarks in our Back-Story, Wallys